The Connecting Branch

There is a no name branch of water which runs on the boundary of the farm.  In some places, a stream might be called a run, or a creek, but here it is called a branch.  It starts not with a spring gushing from the ground, but is only given life when it rains and the runoff water from the higher areas around it runs down into the lower path where it waits.  I call it a runoff branch.  Though it bears no name, the water from here goes there, then to the named creek somewhere down the way, and then to a river, and finally to an ocean a hundred miles or so from here.   

Once it arrives in that great expanse of water, it becomes a part of that moisture which rises in the air to once again send rain to the runoff branch.  And while it bears no name, it connects us to there and reminds those who see it that connection is ever a part of the creation which God has put in place around us.  As the runoff branch is connected to the world, so are all of us.  Never do we really live alone though there may be dark moments when it seems that both God and humankind have forgotten and forsaken us.    

This is one of the great truths of the Scripture.  It is also one of the great realities proclaimed to us with our understanding of what it means for the Word to become flesh among us.  (John 1:14)  God is not there and unconcerned about here.  Whenever we are tempted to go to such a dark place in our minds, we need only remember Bethlehem and the great mystery that unfolded there so long ago.  Though in the form of God, Christ emptied Himself  to be born here in human likeness  (Philippians 2:7)) so that we might know we are never forgotten, never left alone, and always in His presence.